Chapter 1 - The Beginning
It was a warm, very humid day, and Robin had just arrived at the location described in the instructional letter they'd gotten a few weeks earlier. Although I'm not sure it's got the right to be called an instructional letter, seeing as it wasn't very instructional. It was just a bunch of words that barely even made sense. Oh, and there was a map as well. A bit more help, I guess. Anyway;
Looking up from the map, Robin made a quick scan of their surroundings. In front of them was what looked to be what was left of the protective walls surrounding a city, and behind them was the dark yet curiously inviting forest they'd just wandered through. Walking through an opening in the walls, Robin found the expected city. Only, it was barely a city anymore. The only still fairly intact building was a small, square-shaped building in the down right corner of the enclosure surrounded by the city's walls.
Taking a look inside the building, Robin realised it was a library. The walls were covered in bookshelves from the floor to the ceiling, full of dusty books. Dragging their finger across all the backs, Robin observed that there was a book missing from its place on the shelf. Taking a quick look around the room, they saw it lying on the floor. Picking it up and opening it, they were surprised to find it was empty. This didn't seem right, Robin thought. Then, something even weirder happened; the book moved. But not like when you're flipping the pages. It was more like if you were to, for some odd reason, shake it. Startled by the sudden movement, Robin dropped the book back onto the floor, making the book flip through its pages in an angry manner. It finally came to a stop on a page in the far back on which robin saw as a small creature attempted to crawl out of the drawing in which it was pictured in the book.
Finally managing to escape the drawing, the small creature, who had previously failed to notice the wizardling standing over him, looking at him with an expression only explainable as a mix of surprise and confusion (a significant yet barely noticeable difference), now took a few minuscule steps towards Robin. His eyes glimmered as he looked at Robin, who felt themself squat down before the creature. The creature responded by hopping into Robins lap. For a few minutes, they were both silently just observing the other, but then Robin decided to speak. Mind you, as this was no creature Robin could recall ever laying eyes upon before, they were a bit cautious with their actions. Although, that was kind of challenging seeing as the creature was a 2 foot tall, covered in rainbow-coloured scales, lizard-looking little fella with forest green, globe formed eyes and a tongue as long as its tail, which rolled up when it closed its mouth. This combined with the fact that Robin adores all non-human kin creatures made it, more or less, impossible for them to refrain from mindlessly staring at the creature and managing to actually utter a word. But, after a few minutes, they finally got out a "Hello", at which the creature looked amusedly at Robin and suddenly Robin heard a voice inside their head going "Hello to you too".
Finally snapping out of their bubble of pure adoration and realising what had happened, Robin once again jumped in surprise. The voice continued; "I'm Kyle, I'm a dreezard", Robin replying; "I'm Robin, I'm a wizardling". When hearing this, Kyle jerked backwards, hiding behind the book he came out of.
Robin realised the situation and found themself automatically laying down flat on the floor stretching an arm towards the dreezard in an attempt to show him that they weren't gonna hurt him. This message apparently came across quite clear, seeing as Kyle cautiously came closer to Robin when he realised they were no threat to him.
After another few minutes of staring at each other, the dreezard gathered enough confidence to go straight up to Robin, jump straight into their breast pocket and snuggle up against the soft fabric.
not minding it, robin let the little guy be. After standing up, a hand kept on the pocket to prevent the Kyle from falling out, Robin took a peek at the outside and realised it had already become dark. Having no knowledge of the wildlife of the surroundings, Robin decided the safest option would be to stay in the library for the night.
Robin made a comfortable sleeping spot on the floor using their backpack for a pillow and a jacket they'd brought for a blanket. Kyle was still lying in Robins breast pocket but seemed to be fast asleep now. When Robin looked at the little fella snoozing in their pocket they realised just how exhausted the trip had been, and as soon as their head hit the backpack they were out like a light.
Robin was awoken by Kyle wiggling in the pocket, trying to get out. Still half asleep, Robin lazily got their hand out from beneath their body and reached into the pocket in an attempt to grab the little guy. They'd just gotten a hold of his tail when a loud roar was heard from outside, making the only window in the building rattle. This made Kyle let out a small squeak, jerk his tail out of Robins grip and dive back into the pocket, all while shaking violently.
Carefully looking outside, Robin came face to face with something that could probably have been mistaken for a dragon, had it been further away. But this close it looked nothing like a dragon. It had the shape of a dragon and about the same size as your average dragon, but instead of scales and thorns its body was covered in white and beige feathers and what looked like dead leaves. It had the teeth of a dragon, but its eyes looked more like those of a cat; yellow and almost glowing despite the brightness of the daylight. However, before Robin could react, the not-dragon had already managed to tear off the roof of the library (or what was left of it anyway), leaving Robin completely exposed to the outside and the wrath of the not-dragon. Not being able to spot the not-dragon, Robin glanced upwards, only to be blinded by the sun. When they finally spotted it, it was coming right towards them. Panicking, the only thing Robin could think of doing was lift their arms in order to protect their head. But this had an outcome much different from what they'd expected. You see, this movement allowed Robin to form a kind of transparent bubble around the not-dragon, restraining it. When Robin then twisted their fingers, making their hand into a fist, the bubble shrunk, along with the not-dragon, into the size of a baseball. The bubble then solidified before falling into Robin's hand.
The stranger watching the situation unfold from the shadows of the ruins gained an impressed expression to their darkened grin.
July 30th, 2020